M'Kyuun

True, but the first season started out with a slightly more serious tone. Alas, we can't go back in time and tell them to choose different toys for Megatron, Soundwave, Reflector, and the cassettes so that they can avoid all the mass-shifting shenanigans required to keep their bot modes at the larger scales. I often wonder what the show would have been like had they assigned those toys to different characters and kept them at realistic scale in both forms. We'll never know. Anyway, I enjoy the more focused narrative of first season where it's essentially Megs and the Ds looking for ways to either gather resources or gain greater power and advantage. The Autobots, nearly always on the defensive, try and stop the Decepticons while protecting themselves and Earth. The overall tone was more serious, and while there were moments of whim and humor, silliness even, on the whole I found it much more enjoyable than any successive seasons, which only seemed to incorporate far more whimsy and silliness, which didn't, and still doesn't, appeal to me. The '86 Movie , while it had its few serious and shining moments, had its share of silliness. Astrotrain's request to "lighten the load" while in the vacuum and weightlessness of space takes the cake. 🙄 The writers definitely did not anticipate this movie's becoming the icon that has become amongst fans, especially adults who can pick it apart for all of its gaffs and sillier bits. Then again, given the short lifespan of most toy properties, who could have predicted that this one would still be going strong 40 years later?

I concede my point! Just one of the dumber things in the '86 Movie. Dare to be Stupid may have been focused on the Junkions, for good reason, but I think it applies to a number of things in the film. The showdown and quotes from Prime's and Megatron's fight are classic for a reason though, and worthy of having been enshrined in other media.

I agree. Their J-35 is even more impressive since it has a functional internal weapons bay in addition to a beautiful realistic sculpt, properly placed and functional retractable gear, and an opening canopy. It's amazing what some third parties can do with certain material. Touch Toys are definitely well above the competition when it comes to making realistic aircraft that transform. I hope others take inspiration. I'd love to have a set of Aerialbots where the jet modes were on par with this. On a side note, I got the Dreamstar Toys versions of Skydive (F-16) and Slingshot (Harrier), as they did a fairly decent job of capturing the fighter modes. They're not perfect, and not even close to Touch Toys' level, but for transforming jets, they're some of the better ones I've seen. Like Touch toys, they went for a more complex robot design that's far more evocative of Bayformers than G1.

I doubt it, too. The Chinese govt seems rather selective on who they prosecute for IP violations. However, I was reading in the comments on a vid review for Touch Toys' J-35 Carefray and apparently the designer did go to prison for Marvel IP infringement. Best not mess with the Mouse, even in China. As I mentioned, most large aircraft companies are probably unaware of these toys and their far greater concern is keeping their designs and technology out of Soviet and Chinese hands. I'm thinking by now third parties understand exactly how much or how little they need to change a design to avoid legal repercussions. They're able to get away with a lot, but some might implement changes just to be on the safe side.

😆 Haven't seen the actual film yet, but the SNL crew did a bang up job on this. Guessing they had to preshoot a lot of that stuff, as most of that would be tough to film on the SNL stage. I don't regularly watch SNL, but if this is their normal level of operations, wow.

Agree on your first point- it seems the most logical way for the intro of a xenomorph without affecting the rest of the timeline. As to the second point, also conceivable, although, one would think that WY would take any bit or piece of the thing and try cloning it, which means they'd had it for years and the need to send the Nostromo to LV-426 is moot. My hope is for a The Thing plot where a group of maybe 20-30 people, ostensibly rescue workers sent in to search the downed ship and recover and give aid to survivors, in an extremely isolated and hostile environment, perhaps Antarctica, encounter the Alien. The usual running, hiding, searching for a way to kill or stop it ensues, lots of dead people, and eventually the Alien itself, with the person who brought it down also fatally injured so there's no one to tell the tale. I don't want the stories of Alien and Aliens retold, rebooted, or amended. An isolated story with good writing, interesting characters, good effects, and some engaging plot beyond the usual dumb decisions and large body count would serve a show like this well. Like Alien, apply some good pacing- someone needn't die at the hands of the monster every episode. A good use of tension and suspense would be far superior to just another run and slash film.

Well, I doubt Phil Dick had Alien in mind when he wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in 1968. Likewise, I doubt that Dan O'Bannon had Dick's pivotal work in mind when writing Alien in the late 70s. Ridley Scott can conflate the two properties all day, but any crossover is purely his work and not the work of the originators. I feel the same way about Alien and the Predator; no matter how much Hollywood and the fans want to see the two enmeshed, at the end of the day, they're separate stand-alone properties that were artificially brought together. Judging by what's been done with those enmeshed films, I'll take mine separate, thanks. I enjoy the Blade Runner universe; I thought Blade Runner: Black Lotus was well done, as well as 2045. I'm happy with their expanding the universe with additional stories, however I don't feel that it needs to be combined or crossed with anything else to make it better. Honoring Dick's paranoia and mistrust of government and technology, his questioning of humanity and sentience as it pertains to artificial life, and whether that life has the right to exist or be free to live as it desires are all fundamental elements of Blade Runner, and those elements should be focal points in any Blade Runner media. Mixing it with Alien, I think the philosophical element would be lost amidst all the screaming, running, hiding, shooting, and dying.

It'd be great if these guys got the licenses to produce American aircraft, but let's be honest, why pay for something you can essentially steal with little to no repercussions, as I doubt many of the American aircraft producers would even know about these things or care. They're more worried about the Chinese and Soviets stealing info about the real aircraft to care about some toy maker. But to the point, it'd be great if an American toy producer arose with skills at this level who decided to make transforming versions of all our American fighters. I just don't think it's financially feasible here.

Showz Store has POs up for Touch Toy's J-16N Wu Tian Yu Shang 2035 Nacrmmi, yet another licensed transforming Chinese fighter by this company. I passed on their previous effort, Carefray, a Chinese J-35 which looks oh so suspiciously like the US F-35 but given that this has a nigh-flawless Su-27 Flanker mode (The Shenyang J-16 is a Chinese derivative of the Soviet fighter), I couldn't resist pulling the trigger. I love the look of the Flanker, one of the most beautiful designs amongst the world's modern fighters, and I've long wanted a transforming version of it. Prior to Touch Toys' version, Sci-Industry, who made sophisticated transforming versions of the Chinese J-20 (Lumitent) and the Changhe WZ-10 combat helicopter (Aegocopter) had a transforming Flanker design in the works that looked amazing. Alas, it was never released and Sci-industry seems to be all but defunct. However, Touch Toys, whose designs are uncannily similar to those of Sci-Industry, are producing incredible transforming versions of real Chinese military aircraft, ships, and a mobile missile launcher that maintain the realism, features and functions of the actual vehicles, and yet transform into complex highly articulated bots. I've heard the designs described as Bayesque; however, let's be clear- these figures have actual mechanical transformations which make sense because they are 100% practical, whereas Bay's monstrosities were the creations of CG artists who just cut up images of vehicles and placed them willy-nilly over a frame without any thought as to how anything would actually move or assume its position. Touch Toys is operating at a level far beyond Takara, who've proven again and again ad nauseum that they have no clue how to make an accurate fighter turn into a robot or vice versa. So while Touch Toys figs, due to their complex aesthetics, do approximate the Bayformer aesthetic, the actual engineering brought to bear makes a world of difference. This guy looks impressive in bot mode, but man, that fighter mode is just amazing. The gear retract and they're located properly on the jet, a feature we almost never see on a Transformers figure. If I have but one gripe, I'm not too crazy about the long skirt bit hanging from the waist. I've no doubt it correlates to some bit of traditional Chinese attire, but I wish and hope that it can fold up onto the bot's back and out of the way of the legs. In all other regards, this is truly a masterwork of engineering. I wish the designer, possibly a fellow going by the interesting sobriquet "Black Apple", worked for Takara, as they, and we as a Transformers fandom, could certainly benefit from his approach to transforming aircraft. I'm definitely looking forward to adding this to my collection.

Wow, that's fandom. I didn't see the Movie in the theater, though my friends did (despite the fact that I was probably the most ardent TF fan of them), and one them owned the VHS, which is how I got to see it for the first time. Gotta say, it didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would. I hated Daniel. Hot Rod was just ok as a lead. I'd rather have had the OG first season bots be the focus. I didn't care for Galvatron's alt mode. I didn't care for the Junkions. I thought their putting Ultra Magnus back together after Prime died from a side wound was total BS. I thought the whole Quintesson thing was weird. I hated that the Cons blew trumpets at Starscream's coronation (a medieval human practice undertaken by "advanced" robots who don't need to breathe and likely lack the apparatus necessary since they can exist just fine in space). I was 15 or 16 when I saw it for the first time, so while I could (obviously) suspend disbelief, some things just annoyed me. Still do. I watch the Movie every few years (I believe I own the Rhino DVD), but it's not the great bit of TF lore to me that it is to other fans. I still rank most of first season as my favorite part of G1. Contrarily, I loved the concept and realization of Unicron- just a marvelous idea that had never occurred to me. To that point, beyond Skyfire, we hadn't even seen large ships transform let alone a planet. Moreover, the mystique of this character was intriguing; we get no back story- he just is- this malevolent seemingly unstoppable force of destruction. Unicron made for a most worthy adversary and a good use of the new MacGuffin, the Matrix of Leadership, the mention of which is notably missing throughout first season. I wonder which came first in the Movie writers' minds: the Matrix or Unicron?

Too true. I'm enjoying it vicariously. I love that Xigfrid made a video, as I can revisit that as often as I please, and bonus, it takes up no room in my already crowded house.

Oh my, I really, really hope they don't try to tie this into the Blade Runner universe; Scott has enough trouble keeping his own Alien universe in check let alone tying it to a completely unrelated one. However, considering for the sake of consideration that the ship is in fact detected sans the swarming of media, and a small recovery team is sent in, and all of them persish, including the xenomorph, in such a way as to leave no remains to be found and studied, lest the whole timeline be disrupted, I see few other ways of positing a story that doesn't upend the previous continuity. Unless, they try to say Weyland-Yutani did recover some remains, have it in their lab for 30 years or so, and somehow draw a correlation between the derelict ship's signal thus sending the Nostromo to their fate. That narrative, however, contrasts with the incredulous response by the company's people to Ripley's report at the beginning of Aliens where they explicitly mention that nothing of the sort has ever been recorded prior despite having colonized numerous worlds. However the showrunners approach it, I just hope they don't destroy the continuity. I'd like to enjoy the show and I hope it's done well.

Astrotrain had misaligned wheels in his train mode. C'mon, how hard is it to at least make it look like all the wheels are aligned on a vehicle that travels on rails? The shuttle's cargo bay has a large unfinished section where it looks like the doors blew off. The G1 toy, despite having, like most 80s Transformers, a mostly immobile bot mode, had much better realized alt modes. Takara did a good job on his bot mode, but when the alts suffer to that extent, I found it pointless to get him. I hope the '86 version rectifies the former toy's flaws. Moving on to Legacy Blitzwing, I'm not crazy about the huge chunk of forward fuselage jutting out from the front of the tank mode. Alas, while the G1 toy did have a bit of it showing, the Sunbow animation tended to emphasize it, and instead of making up for the flaw in both toy and toon, Takara too emphasized it. SMH. The jet mode is a travesty, the result of careless engineering and a traditional mindset at Takara where everything they can't be bothered to integrate into the jet's fuselage gets tossed on the bottom. I would've hoped there'd be an evolution in design philosophy by now, but it doesn't seem so. While I have yet to own an official post-G1 Astrotrain, b/c , quite frankly, they've all looked like ass to me, I have, however, bought the majority of Blitzwing figs, his being my favorite of the triple-changers second to Astrotrain. I finally picked up the Legacy toy after finding him on discount, and while I think the bot mode is fantastic and the tank so-so, I still find the jet mode abhorrent. I hope they do right by both of these characters with the '86 SS figs and give them the polished alts that they deserve after 40+ years of lackluster toys.

2026 Studio Series Listings Found - 86 Leader Soundwave, Astrotrain, More! - Transformers News - TFW2005 As the link suggests, we're getting SS86 Astrotrain and Soundwave, and they, unlike another release of SS86 Snarl, are not listed as package refreshes. This is cautiously good news, as both the WFC Siege Astrotrain and Netflix Soundwave figs had flaws aplenty beggaring for all new molds to address them. I'm all for improved figs of both. Hoping they turn out great. I'm really hoping that an SS86 Blitzwing is in the pipeline as well and that it does a better job of integrating the kibble so as not to put it all under the jet mode again. If MechaFansToys can accomplish that at legends scale, surely Takara can do it, too.

If they could do for Alien as a series what they did with Prey for the Predator, at least a single season would be good. Prey captured the essence of the original film very well, and I found it to be the second most enjoyable entry in the franchise. (Sorry Danny Glover.) It was the first sequel of sorts that made me want more. For me, too, my love of the Alien movies begins with the original film and ends with Aliens. The others let me down in one way or another, mostly for reasons that @Seto Kaiba has so eloquently elucidated. Regarding the new series, the prequel thing has already been done, and putting the Alien on Earth some 30 years prior to the original film's discovery of the species sounds like a recipe for continuity disaster. Given the eponymous critter's unsatiable appetite for dealing out death, and the fact that this will be set in our future, which sets the state of technology beyond our present state, it's a highly dubious prospect that a manmade spaceship could crash back on Earth and not have a plethora of responders and media all over it such that the emergence of such a creature would or could remain either unknown or obfuscated. For me, that's the first hurdle: make me believe this thing could land undetected in a world saturated by social media. The only ways I could see it happening sufficiently is to have it crash in Antarctica or somewhere in Siberia perhaps near some extremely isolated outpost. And even then, those places have comms, so the challenge is in keeping the fact of this thing's existence unbroadcasted and unknown to the rest of the world, especially Weyland-Yutani, until Dallas and the gang stumble on the derelict ship on LV-426. Supposing though that they make a credible effort towards effective isolation, I think if they follow the formula for '79 Alien , or even Carpenter's The Thing, one of my favorite sci-fi films, they could make a plausibly enjoyable show watching the xenomorph do what it does best to a small, extremely isolated group of people who are totally unprepared for what's coming. Of course, to maintain its continuity with regards to the original film, they're going to have to somehow kill the Alien(s) before the show wraps, and moreover, and harder to believe, not report what has happened to anyone in the outside world. I hope it's well done, certainly better than the majority of the sequels, as this franchise could use a shot in the arm, IMHO.

Blast from the past, or so I thought until I took a second look. I wish this and updated versions in the same format came with the toys like they did in the 80s.

I've never owned a full set of Aerialbots and I was really hoping these ones would give us better jet modes, but I think the TR toys did a better job with most, and they were pretty far from accurate themselves. TR Silverbolt, as usual, was a travesty and I didn't get him, but I did get a few of the TR Aerialbots. I'm passing on the entire team this time around, as they're all so incredibly poor. It's money saved, but honestly, being an aircraft fan, especially fighters, I really wanted this to be the set of Aerialbots that stepped up the accuracy a bit b/c eventually I'd like to have a set that I'd enjoy. Alas, not to be this time. I'm kinda hoping , now that Newage has breached the CHUG scale with Romulus, that perhaps another 3P, or NA themselves, will do a set of these guys with more focus on getting the aircraft modes right, or at least much closer to accurate than I we'll ever get from HasTak.

Given how little love Mylene's VF-11 has received in toy form, I wouldn't be opposed to such a crossover to pair with Basara Prime. Honestly, I'd be happier if we got the straight valks with heads that homage the TF characters, but since Takara is bent on combining elements of the TF characters so as to ruin any possibility of ever getting a realistic or perfectly aerodynamic jet from them, I can only image how it would turn out. Still, the color schemes align as well as the fit. I'm guessing it would be mostly a VF-11 with Arcee's back pods.

Having a look at the backside of this fig, I revise my earlier guess at its transformation. Since the intakes are mounted on the torso above the shoulders, and due to the hinge arrangement on the actual shoulders as they correlate to the VF-19's shoulder pauldrons (odd that they didn't configure them to form pauldrons in a like manner on this figure), it appears that the chest piece must swing down so that the intakes mate up with the tops of the hips to complete the engines. Given where the arms are, I surmise that they are going to swing inboard in a similar manner to the VF-1 and the pauldrons will then move into place over the backs of the thighs to complete the top portion of the engines. I'm guessing that the squarish Prime chest will just sit on the bottom of the jet, which will spoil the bottom of the jet mode, but it appears that in all other regards, at least from a top view, it's going to form a decent looking VF-19. That being said, I concur with Scyla's questioning the need to incorporate truck parts at all when simply putting a stylized head on a VF-19 body would have sufficed and offered a far better jet mode that actually transforms and looks like it's supposed to. I'm curious to see how it all comes together, however, I'm not at all a fan of Basara and, like Scyla, I wish they'd just given us a straight VF-19 instead of this Frankenstein's monster of a valk. I say this as I look lovingly upon my Yamato VF-19S and YF-19 standing next to each other on my desk. Such gorgeous designs.

The technologies that exist now are like our childhood sci-fi tropes come true- pretty amazing stuff, and in the case of 3D printing, much more accessible, as you said, than most of the other methodologies for producing plastic toys and models. I haven't handled a fully 3D printed figure, but I've bought a number of add-on kits for my Transformers and I'm pretty impressed by their durability and the shapes that are possible. I imagine that as the technology matures, it'll eventually replace extrusion molding as a cheaper, faster, equally durable method for producing parts.

I totally don't remember the Shockwave scene. The one with Blaster, Soundwave, and the cassettes is memorable for the quotes, "First we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside!" and for the fighting amongst the cassettes. Interesting tidbit about Shockwave. I didn't realize that was his last appearance. I guess they really wanted to wipe the slate clean to usher in new toys. Yeesh!

Historically, observance of a set scale has not been Has/Tak's strongsuit for Transformers. They've been making Optimus and Megatron toys at roughly the same voyager scale, and sometimes at deluxe scale, since at least the Classics period circa 2006. With so many figures having been made to that scale, something like SS86 Prime, regardless of height scales, feels overly large by comparison with nearly twenty years of precedence. I don't recall Shockwave's making an appearance in the '86 Movie, but it's been a while since I last watched it. Regardless, I hope all those and more get the SS86 treatment and, much like Soundwave, they are superior to their previous toys. I can't really say I'm anticipating SS86 Megatron, knowing that he's going to have his typical bot body which suggests he should turn into a gun, but will likely be encumbered with all the additional mass to make him turn into a tank. I'll likely pass on him, as Romulus is the G1 Megatron I really want. I concede that Romulus appeals as a higher quality figure than the average Generations fig. However, if it were possible for Has/Tak to do SS86 Megatron with his Walther P38 alt mode at the commander class price point, I think we could expect a toy of similar complexity, and while not fully painted like Romulus, likely more paint apps than Prime in the absence of all that went into his trailer. He'd also quite likely come with the same accessories that came with Romulus, perhaps minus the interchangeable faces, in addition to his silencer and stock to complete the gun mode as seen in the show and film. In short, I agree, Romulus is superior to most Generations stuff, but given what we got with SS86 Prime and other commander class figs, assuming a G1 SS86 Megatron with a pistol mode were being made, I think an official toy would have a similar feel, minus full paint and die-cast. It'd still be premium, just premium-lite by comparison. 😄 While I've already stated my opinion about the impending SS86 Megatron, I'm curious to see how it turns out, especially if, like Prime, he gets the commander class level of production. If they can somehow reduce all that tank baggage into a nigh seamless looking bot mode, I'll be impressed. I very much doubt that'll be the case, but one can hope. Regardless, I'll likely pass on him in lieu of the proper G1 Megs I already have.

Enjoyed the review, Mike. I'd also like a slightly chunkier Megatron, although, it's obvious they used ER Prime as a comparison model to base Romulus assuming, as you said, that the upcoming SS86 would scale similarly. Hindsight, indeed, alas. I think the comparable thickness of Romulus' thigh and lower leg throws off his general silhouette from how we're used to seeing him depicted, with a more pronounced lower leg thickness and a thinner thigh. However, the fact that the thighs contribute so much to the alt mode and enjoy a fair bit of the transformation process themselves, it's forgivable and my view of it is obviously subjective. Returning to the scale conversation, despite the intention to scale with SS86, I'm glad that Romulus ended up scaling the way he does, as he fits better with the overall entirety of CHUG. SS86 Prime has overly large proportions, and I wonder why they chose to upscale him from the usual voyager scale and give him so much chunk comparatively. I think he's a really well-done fig, but I still have a huge soft spot for ER Prime who scales better, IMHO, with the rest of CHUG. I'm no Skully, as paint is not really one of my high requisites for a figure, especially in a mass retail toy under significant budget limitations, but you make a good point about the level of paint and die-cast, the latter of which rarely if ever shows up in the mainline any more. Newage is known for adding a more premium touch to their legends toys (I just bought their whole team of toy deco Dinobots, and those things are delicious with both paint and die-cast- beautiful figures, all), and they've applied those touches to Romulus as well. I suspect Newage may have believed, too, that SS86 Prime at standard voyager scale might, at the commander class price, have enjoyed far more paint on the core figure as well as possibly some little bit of die-cast. I'd love it if Sixo and his podcast group could score an interview with the designer(s) behind Romulus and coax some elucidation on their thinking and intentions going into Romuls' production. There's definitely a story there, and while NA may be catching some flack for getting the scale wrong, IMHO, the choice was both reasonable and far more apropos to the rest of CHUG on the whole. As to how clean Romulus is, so much yes, especially in comparison with their legends offering, which looks a little wonky due to his weird hip joints and messy backside. I guess they made a hip replacement for him, but I never bothered to get it. Compared to Magic Square's Doomsday, Agamemnon suffers in any number of ways. I've said it often and it bears repeating: MS' Doomsday is the best Megatron toy ever released. I still stand by that assessment; however, I give Romulus second runner up- he's just that well-done. IMHO, Doomsday gets the proportions better in bot mode (Romulus gets a couple things more accurate in gun mode, but honestly, how many people keep their G1 Megs in gun mode?) As to Romulus looking too Sunbow, they were after all aiming to mate this with SS86 Prime, which I assume they thought would be smooth as a baby's bottom for lack of details. However, while I suppose they could have added some additional panel lines/ mechanical details into the forearms or his back, I think he's fine and still pairs up with ER Prime pretty well, regardless. I say this as a big fan of details on my bots and not a big fan of the ultra-smooth toon look. Scaled up, Romulus or Doomsday would make for a suitable replacement for MP-36. My continuing hope is that Magic Square will seize the opportunity and do SS86 Prime and MP scaled Doomsday figs. That would be glorious. Given the level of paint on the core figure, I also thought it a bit odd that there was no paint on the purple pistol or the handle of the laser sword. The pistol in trans-purple just looks wrong. I also thought the omission of the stock and silencer were odd as well, as those are more salient accessories to a G1 Megatron toy than even the mace, laser sword, or pistol, all of which showed up in single scenes. However, every time Megs transformed in the show or Movie, he always had the silencer and stock equipped, just like Prime always had his trailer. I didn't mess about with the little bits on Romulus' heels to see if they're removable, but I assume you did, and that's an interesting observation. Perhaps there was indeed more planned for this fig, but they dialed back on the accessories, features/functions, and accessory paint to bring the price down given this was a testbed of sorts for Newage and they may have felt it better to omit those in favor of a lower price tag. While it would have been nice to have them, since Romulus will be in bot mode the vast majority of his existence in my collection, the stock and silencer, much like my Primes' trailers, are kept aside and at the end of the day, I don't really miss them. Again, there's more conversation to be had with the designers and I hope it happens at some point. The instructions are definitely misleading; I nearly broke mine while trying to flip down the chest panel. There's nothing in the instructions that indicate that you have to disengage the tab on the left shoulder mount panel from the back panel. I was using a scarily uncomfortable amount of force to try and push that chest panel down and when it looked like stuff was starting to possibly be breaking, I consulted a vid review which set me straight. Fortunately, no major harm done. For good measure, I applied a little Gorilla Glue to the sandwich of panels that comprise the chest panel assembly just to be sure. After transforming him a couple of times and getting some of the really tight panels loose enough to move without tearing off a nail, I find the process rather fun. I can't honestly say that about a lot of third-party figs, and even a number of official figs, MP-36 included. The schema is clever, unique, and lends itself to a pretty close facsimile of the Walther P38. The lack of a safety and other minor details is lamentable, but a worthy tradeoff for such a well-designed transformation process and such a clean robot mode. Gotta admit, the last steps of putting the hip skirts and butt panels into place to finish the pistol grip is really satisfying. The gun mode is solid and looks really good. Despite my earlier comment, it is a bit of a shame that you can't complete his alt mode with silencer and stock. perhaps NA will do an accessory add-on pack, or do a repackage with additional accessories, hopefully better painted. I got the toon-colored version, but if they sold such a repackage, I'd be tempted to get the toy deco and just share the silencer and stock between them. To your first argument that Romulus is too premium, I disagree, but from the standpoint that this is a third-party toy and not an official release. I think you could expect this level of paint and die cast from a Takara-Tomy figure, but they operate on a different philosophy than Hasbro, and one needn't look further than the Missing Link line. If TT were to make their own SS86 G1 Megs that actually turns into a gun, while I doubt it would have die-cast, I think it'd definitely have better paint than anything Hasbro releases. I wish they would, as I'd love to see what they'd come up with as a properly scaled mate for their SS86 Prime. As to Romulus being too premium to fit in with CHUG, while he's a bit shy on small surface details, I think he fits in pretty well. That said, my feelings would not be hurt if they continued the series giving us, at the very least, a better Soundwave +cassettes and upscaled versions of their Seekers. For my part, I think Romulus is a clear winner and an amazing success for a first stab at producing a CHUG scaled toy by a company that hitherto has only worked at legends scale, even if some of those legends toys approached CHUG scale (looking at my NA Skyfire). Perhaps making some of those larger legends figs gave them the impetus to try. Whatever it was, I'm very glad they did as they've filled a notable void in my collection that no official toy, save a TT SS86 Megs that turns into a gun, will ever again fill. I keep hoping Magic Square will toss their proverbial hat in the CHUG ring as well, but for now, I'm quite satisfied with Romulus filling the void. Hopefully this toy sells very well and gives these companies who may be on the fence the courage to put out their own CHUG scaled stuff. It's well past time. Totally off topic, but after these legends toy producers exhaust G1, I hope at least one of them decides to do Animated figs. I know Animated isn't everybody's cuppa, but I think there's enough of us out there that we could adequately support the venture. Seeing what they've done with G1 really makes me want to see how they'd tackle the stylistic elements of Animated, arguably not the easiest look to translate into a transforming toy. I think TT did a pretty good job back in 2007-09, but 3P has come a long way since then, and one can only imagine what they'd come up with in terms of solutions to capture that look faithfully and still deliver bots with much better articulation than the official toys ever had.

Very interesting news. I've never heard of this company, but I'm guessing I've seen their stuff while perusing the toy isles. Very curious to see how they approach M.A.S.K. As little room as I have for much of anything anymore, I have a feeling I'm going to be sorely tempted to pick a couple of these up. The Ramen Toys stuff looks amazing thus far, but I've not invested. But if the TLS' stuff is right there on the shelf in front of me, all bets are off. I never owned a single M.A.S.K. toy as a kid, despite seeing them in stores and watching the show. I thought they were amazing, but my budget was severely limited so I stuck to the occasional Transformer or LEGO set. Lack of space is my main detractor now, but if I find one or two that really pique my interest, I may just have to snag 'em.

You've pretty much summed up my feelings about third party. My days on this Earth are ever receding, and with the license holders of these properties sitting on those licenses when there's an audience for stuff to be made, unofficial options become the only options, or in the case of many Transformers, interesting, unique, or superior options compared to, or in the absence of, official releases. I look no further than XTransbots' Omnibots, which haven't had toys since their original American releases in 1985, and of course their earlier Diaclone toys. As the only option for toys I've long wanted and waited for, I'm all in for the three G1 variants that XTransbots are releasing. They're not the best toys, as some of the design decisions are questionable, but in the absence of any other Omnibot toys official or non, I happily parted with my money for them. Likewise, my newest acquisition, Newage's Romulus, a well-done CHUG scaled G1 Megatron that turns into a Walther P38ish pistol, a toy we shall never again get officially, unless Takara makes it for the Asian market. That was a huge want, and I'm pleased to finally have a figure to fill that hole in my collection. No guilt, no regret. Much joy.